作为“读书人”, 传统的“士”由于其独特的身份而享有种种特权, 现代的“知识分子”作为公民则与其他社会成员平等地享有权利和承担义务。中国读书人从传统到现代这一转型的核心则在于“职业化”, 也就是以创造和传播知识文化为其职业的人被叫做知识分子。虽然源于传统社会与现代社会的本质区别, 传统的士与现代的知识分子存在着某些重要的不同, 但是从精神血脉和文明传承方面讲, 二者又在同一种历史传统中, 所以与古代的士一样, 今天的中国知识分子同样需要在谋道与谋食、优秀与成功、创造与时尚、君子与小人之间做出选择。

Nowadays China is under a historical transition from an identity society under small-scale peasant economy to a civil society under market economy.Meanwhile, we also see a transition from scholar (shi) to intellectual.As a scholar, a traditional scholar enjoys his privileges because of his identity.But as a citizen, a modern intellectual enjoys his rights and carries out his duties equally to all the people with different identities.The core of this transition is professionalization.Such a person is an intellectual with a profession of creating and diffusing knowledge and culture.Though there are some other big differences between traditional scholars and modern intellectuals owing to essential differences between a traditional society and a modern society, we still can see that they are in the same historical tradition in accordance with the spiritual descent and cultural heritage.Just as traditional scholars did before, modern intellectuals also make their choices between pursuing their spiritual goals and earning their living, between being perfect and achieving a success, between creating new things and following new things, and between being a superior man (jun-zi) and being an inferior man (xiao-ren).